Editor-in-chief of the Saratov Internet newspaper Fourth Power, Vadim Rogozhin, has received the official status of a suspect in the criminal case on slander regarding Deputy Governor Denis Fadeyev.

Editor-in-chief of the Saratov Internet newspaper Fourth Power, Vadim Rogozhin, has received the official status of a suspect in the criminal case on slander regarding Deputy Governor Denis Fadeyev.

Rogozhin told Interfax that he received on Friday from the interrogating officer of the Interior Ministry's main department for the Saratov region the notification that he became a suspect in the criminal case opened under the Russian Criminal Code Article 128.1 Part 2, slander.

Rogozhin said he had also studied the results of linguistic and psycholinguistic research held by the Saratov forensic inquiry laboratory of the Russian Justice Ministry. "Experts - a linguist and a psychologist - have reached similar conclusions in both studies: the article contains negative information but it is expressed in an evaluating form and relates to the author's opinion. These statements do not have words, which are of indecent form. All this confirms my right given by the law on mass media to express my opinion and evaluations," Rogozhin said.

"Experts have not seen either slander, insults or humiliations in the article, however investigators decided differently, which can show the bias here," the editor-in-chief said.

"The notification says that I had intention and knowingly circulated false information. This does not come from their studies and as far as I understood investigators do not have other proof. It does not befit politicians to accuse the mirror personified in reporters, it is better to look at your actions and to listen to criticism," Rogozhin said.

On November 13, 2013, the investigating directorate of the Interior Ministry's main department for the Saratov region opened a criminal case over slander regarding the deputy governor in an article of the Fourth Power news agency. An inspection was held prior to this upon the statement filed by Fadeyev, in which he demanded holding the Fourth Power criminally liable for slander.

The official statement of Fadeyev, released by the local ministry of press on November 18, said that the article "contains insulting words in regard to members of the regional government and representatives of the legislative authorities."

According to Rogozhin, who wrote the article, it concerns the material headlined Leaders of Invalids of Sense released on December 10, 2012. Rogozhin said that in the article he "ironically analyzed the closest circle of Governor Valery Radayev." Deputy Governor Fadeyev was mentioned in the article among others.

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